Apple takes a stand on fake news

Last year Pizza Hut branched out from the cheesey, doughy product we all know and love and made a pair of sneakers that could order pizza. The Pizza Hut Pie Tops are back this year to promote the company’s status as the Official Pizza of the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament – with a new and improved design. Not only do the sneakers possess a button that orders pizza through a Bluetooth connection linked to a smartphone app, but a second button that pauses the TV so you don’t have to miss a second of the game while you go get your pizza. Although the sneakers are simply a marketing tactic (and an effective one at that), it’s crazy to think that fashion tech could be considered the norm in the not too distant future.

As the debate continues over fake news and the role that aggregators like Facebook have played in spreading it, Apple is making an acquisition that could help it lay out a position as a purveyor of trusted information. The iPhone maker is buying Texture, a magazine virtual newsstand that includes a catalog of content from many of the world’s leading publishers. “We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users” Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software & Services said in a statement. Texture launched in 2010 and has since become a leader in the multi-title subscription service market.

YouTube’s “The Greatest Stories Retold” installation at South by Southwest features a series of interactive, short-form stories produced by various international creative agencies that are based around well-known fairy tales. The installation aims to show the power and effectiveness of YouTube’s 6- and 15-second ads, and in turn encourage advertisers to get creative with their storytelling within shorter formats. Ben Jones, creative director and head of Unskippable Labs at Google, says shorter formats ‘force clarity’ and hopes the installation can showcase some of the possibilities for unskippable ads. Check out all of “The Greatest Stories Retold” here.

At this year’s South by Southwest, Quartz released ‘Quartz for Messenger’ as a new way of delivering the news and other content to users on Facebook’s Messenger. The Chatbot was designed to make an experience that felt conversational and engaging, so it won’t just deliver the news in a chat. Instead, it is reported to send stories that go deep into a topic and learn when best to notify you and share projects like new recipes to try. Could it become an easily accessible one-stop shop for all your news and entertainment needs? Check out a video of the bot in action here.

Bose made the surprise announcement this week that they would be delving into the augmented reality realm with their product ‘Bose AR’. As a business specialising in headphones, the company was forced to take a different approach to AR, which was, prior to this initiative, almost exclusively associated with vision – but it doesn’t have to be. Bose AR devices combine data from embedded motion sensors with GPS information from your phone, which they connect with via Bluetooth. GPS detects where a user is, and the nine-axis sensor can determine which direction they’re looking and moving. Learn more about ‘Bose AR’ here.

It seems hard to imagine here in sunny Australia that some parts of the world receive such little sun that their vitamin D levels need to be artificially replenished. Swedish pharmeceutical company Apotek are tapping into their customer’s needs by turning their store windows into a light therapy station to mimic natural daylight for those craving some much needed vitamin D. The chain acknowledges that by the end of winter, many people in the northern latitudes of Scandinavia, suffer from inadequate vitamin D levels. The pharmacy is offering people extra access to light frequencies that stimulate the production of the vitamin using specially adapted fluorescent lamps in its windows, activated when people stand in front of them.